SINGER Melanie Scholtz describes a chance meeting on Cape Town’s St George’s Mall as seeding the collaboration with legendary poet James Matthews that forms her new album, Freedom’s Child (www.melaniescholtz.com).There is nothing chancy about the result. Scholtz has crafted melodies that enact, not merely accompany, the poetry: a Civil Rights hymn for the title track; a sinister, Hannes Eisler-like soundtrack for The Face of My Mother Takes Shape; a personal, reflective tone on I’m Slowly Becoming Accustomed to the Changing Patterns of My Face — not only the poet’s song now, but hers too — a mystical meditation on Flesh of The Earth. Matthews has always been a poet of musicality and physicality alongside protest; now those aspects of his words are realised.It’s a joy to hear Mark Fransman’s sensitive piano and reeds; we haven’t heard him in this kind of context for a while. Several other pedigreed players include saxophonist Soweto Kinch and drummer Kevin Gibson, plus the poet’s own...
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